While the public and the media were preoccupied with the new caretaker cabinet and the upcoming early election, two stories developed in parallel over the last week, converging into one over the weekend.
The first was the 3 April arrest of the recently appointed director of the Customs Agency Petya Bankova by the National Security Agency (DANS) and the Anti-corruption commission (ACC) alongside six others on suspicion of their participation in an organized crime group for drugs smuggling and money laundering.
The second was the surprise resignation - followed by its even more unexpected withdrawal a day later - of the Secretary General of the Internal Ministry, Zhivko Kotsev - practically the second in command in the state police. At first, it was announced he resigned "for personal reasons," but shortly after it was revealed that he submitted the resignation letter between two meetings with Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, who had apparently exerted pressure on him.
During the weekend, it turned out that the two cases were connected - Kotsev has likely been forced to resign because he met one of the people arrested alongside Bankova, who allegedly gave him a "very expensive watch," the court papers claim. However, while Bankova remained in custody alongside two of her supposed accomplices, Kotsev was never apprehended. Neither was he involved in the pre-trial proceedings as a witness or an informant.
The whole story opens up a lot more questions than answers. How did Bankova take control over a drug trafficking ring in the month-and-a-half that she was on the job? Why was this alleged ring busted exactly now when it had apparently been under surveillance since the start of 2023 (and media publications about it appeared as far back as 2015)? What is the role of Kotsev in the whole story? And what are the political implications of the saga? But before we get to the questions, let's set up the scene
A very strange anti-corruption operation
There was very little information about the arrest of Bankova during the week until, on Saturday, the Sofia City Court decided to keep her in custody over the prosecution's smuggling charges, alongside two of the other six people who were initially detained - father and son Stefan and Marin Dimitrovi. Dimitrov-son is also charged, alongside his father and Nikolay "Pascal" Nikolov (considered to be one of the biggest cigarette smugglers in Bulgaria), with storing 4 million levs' worth of cigarettes with unpaid customs and excise duties. According to the court, the investigators have made recordings of Bankova meeting the two Dimitrovi and discussing personnel changes in one of the border crossings with Turkey.
Bankova took over the Customs Agency only a month and a half ago, after Finance Minister Assen Vassilev announced its planned merger with the National Revenue Agency (NRA). Before that, she was deputy head of the agency for about a year, after having worked for DANS for many years. According to her own words, she left the intelligence agency after getting into conflict with its director Plamen Tonchev, who allegedly pressured her to carry out his dubious dealings. "I am the first victim of the new ACC*, but I will not surrender," Bankova told the media on Thursday, adding that she suspects that the reason for DANS going after her is the personal grudge she had with her ex-boss. She added that her work computer and notes describing her plans to break a smuggling channel were seized from her workplace.
Outgoing Finance Minister Assen Vassilev, on the other hand, said that PM Nikolay Denkov was not informed about the raid (DANS is directly subordinate to the prime minister), described Bankova's work so far as "very effective" and said that he believed the raid was to intimidate the customs director.
An even stranger police chief resignation
The other story that developed in parallel to the Customs Agency raid was the sudden resignation of Zhivko Kotsev, practically the person responsible for the operational running of the state police, the following day. In a press release from the Interior Ministry, his decision was attributed to "personal reasons" and no more information was given. Then, a day later - on Friday - he surprisingly appeared alongside outgoing PM Denkov, who said he had not approved the resignation and that Kotsev had been, in fact, pressured to file it "by a senior magistrate figure." According to Capital sources, this figure was none other than the Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, who apparently met Kotsev twice over the week.
Talking to Dnevnik.bg, Kotsev said that he was invited to assist in a criminal proceeding on 3 April. "I appeared at the ACC, at the prosecutor's office, and then later certain procedural actions were conducted in my office and at my home, but allegations about [the institutions finding] colossal sums of money there do not correspond to the truth," Kotsev said. Asked if he was a protected witness in the case, he said he did not want to elaborate.
This is where the two cases converge. According to the Sofia City Court documents released on Saturday, the connection between the Bankova and Kotsev cases was that the investigators had acquired footage of the Secretary General meeting one of the Dimitrovi family at Sofia Airport, where he gave the police official a box containing what the prosecution described as a "very expensive watch." The watch was then seen on Kotsev's arm, according to DANS officials.
What is that all about?
A little more context: this is the first arrest of a senior Customs Agency official, despite enduring suspicions that the institution had been covering up various smuggling operations. Also, both Bankova and Kotsev were considered close to WCC-DB, so the operations against them might be seen as attempts to dislodge the few appointees of the reformists before the Glavchev cabinet takes over.
It is also the first operation of the reformed ACC, which was created by the new anti-corruption law adopted in the autumn of 2023 and which was supposed to start operating on March 1. However, it does not have an elected leadership and it was believed that this is why it is not yet operational. Notably, on the day of the operation, GERB and MRF submitted draft rules for the election of the ACC leadership after boycotting WCC-DB's attempts to do the same in the previous months.
Assen Vassilev said the patrons of the smuggling channels had an interest in the raid and declared Bankova's work effective, pointing to two large drug shipments seized recently. GERB leader Boyko Borissov saw a battle of clans in customs. And PM Denkov commented that there are many rumors that DANS is covering up drug trafficking, which should be investigated by the services. A temporary parliamentary committee was also set up by TISP to check for corruption in customs and the "possible role" of the outgoing Finance Minister in it, which smells like the opening of another front against the reformists before the early vote. All of which promises to be "the dirtiest election campaign," as WCC's Kiril Petkov said last week.
While the public and the media were preoccupied with the new caretaker cabinet and the upcoming early election, two stories developed in parallel over the last week, converging into one over the weekend.
The first was the 3 April arrest of the recently appointed director of the Customs Agency Petya Bankova by the National Security Agency (DANS) and the Anti-corruption commission (ACC) alongside six others on suspicion of their participation in an organized crime group for drugs smuggling and money laundering.
